What Needs To Be Done: How to Stop the Trafficking of Individuals For Sexual Exploitation
The most important step in combating trafficking is preventing it through global awareness. We need to educate individuals about the tactics criminals use to coerce and traffic women. It is important to teach women how to protect themselves against perpetrators. We can work on making families with potential victims aware of the dangers of the illegal sex trade. This can prevent women and children from being forced into the sexual servitude due to a lack of education or limited employment options. We can also develop better education that talks about prostitution and trafficking in schools and makes students aware of the risks involved with the sex trade. Mass media campaigns, as well as local awareness efforts, are critical in educating the public about sex trafficking. We need to expose the extent of trafficking and the consequences of the sex trade to the public. We need people to say that they won't tolerate this inhuman atrocity. Then individuals will pressure their governments to address this issue. If we make everyone fully aware of sex trafficking, states will have no choice but to get heavily involved in abolishing slavery.
It is crucial that governments pass and enforce laws that impose fierce penalties on the customers of trafficking victims. Most sources believe that the key to eradicating sex trafficking is the punishment of consumers. Prostitutions should be seen for what it is-a form of violence against women. According to the U.S. State Department, “Legislation of prostitution expands the market for commercial sex, opening markets for criminal enterprises and creating a safe haven for criminals who traffic people into prostitution...Legislation simply makes it easier for them to blend in with a purportedly regulated sex sector and makes it more difficult for prosecutors to identify and punish those who are trafficking people.” (U.S. State Department) We need to find ways to change male sexual norms and teach men that it is never justifiable to view women as objects that can be bought or sold. We cannot tolerate women being viewed as commodities in popular culture. Without the men who buy sex, trafficking would not exist. According to Lara Fergus, “All the expensive measures in the whole world would add up to naught unless there is an attitude change on the part of men to buying and selling women.” (Fergus 23) We have to devise stricter laws and penalties to target the demand for prostitution. Men who buy sex are part of the abuse of women who are bought and sold and they need to be criminalized. States need to target the demand for prostitution, as well as traffickers, brothel owners, and pimps.
Victims, on the other hand, cannot be treated like criminals or illegal immigrants. It is the responsibility of the destination county to help the women that have been trafficked there. Their citizens have purchased services from trafficked women and by doing this they have allowed the trade to continue. Victims require housing, counseling, medical and material assistance, and employment training and opportunities to facilitate reintegration into society. Victims need their privacy protected and their safety guaranteed so that they can trust government officials and work with them to prosecute traffickers. International laws that protect victims will allow them to come forward and testify against their attackers. Not enough traffickers are being penalized, and therefore the illegal trade continues to flourish. Traffickers need to face severe punishment, and the prosecution of these criminals depends on the aid of the victims. We need adequate international laws that provide serious penalties to traffickers and include victim compensation. All law enforcement agencies and other authorities need to be trained to recognize trafficking and implement effective prosecution.
It is important that we deal with the poverty, destitution, and government corruption that occurs in countries where victims originate. We need to push for increased global opportunities in education and employment. Jobs must be available that can provide for families and people must be trained to do them. Women are the most vulnerable because they are more likely to be in poverty. Addressing poverty will have a profound effect on the trafficking of women.
It is also important that we address gender inequalities worldwide. According to Fergus, “Women are vulnerable to being trafficked because they lack education; they more often have limited job opportunities; they are, and consider themselves to be subject to the direction of their families; they often lack self-esteem; and because they are able to be viewed as commodities-by themselves, their communities and those along the trafficking chain, and throughout the world, who would exploit them.” (Fergus 15) We need to focus on eradicating women's inequalities, in every institution, and in every state in the world. When women are devalued within their cultures, they are easily victimized. We cannot tolerate the normalization of violence towards women or the portrayal of women as objects or commodities. Women's rights need to be protected and we need to address the inequality in status and opportunity that makes women vulnerable to trafficking and other abuses.
